In the California desert on April 12 the first powered flight of a rocket fueled by liquid oxygen and methane took place. The Prospector 14LM (P-14LM) rocket, built by Garvey Spacecraft Corporation (GSC) and California State University Long Beach (CSULB), flew to an altitude of 5,500 feet under 1,000 pounds of thrust. The P-14LM was recovered after a parachute-aided landing.
The benefits of a LOX-Methane powered rocket are tied to the relative abundance of methane throughout the solar system, including on Mars, Titan and Jupiter. Making use of the methane on other planets could potentially enable less expensive, longer duration or completely new deep space missions. NASA has been researching the use of methane as a propellant on a series of other projects that have focused on ground static fire testing.
This same partnership yielded the first powered flight of an ablative aerospike thrust chamber in 2003, and the team has lofted rockets in nine missions since then, with two of those flights occurring within the last 12 months. Each of these launches has had specific research and development goals, building towards a nanosat launch capability and operationally responsive space objectives. What is unique about the Garvey Spacecraft Corporation and California State University Long Beach team? Some would attribute it to the focus on industry-university partnership which provides a unique combination of ability and agility.
The output of the innovative GSC-CSULB partnership (operating under the banner of California Launch Vehicle Education Initiative or CALVEIN) is more than just rocket launches. The students who work on the cutting edge projects come away with hands-on, project-based experience that is rarely matched in rigor and scope by purely academic activities. In the mean time, the team is able to achieve significant technology development goals very efficiently. As the baby-boomer generation reaches retirement eligibility in larger numbers and begins to take their experience with them in the coming years, hands-on projects like these play an important role in preparing the next generation workforce to be the recipients of the "tribal knowledge" that goes far beyond theoretical understanding. The opportunity for students to participate in these projects is dependent on the collaboration between industry and university sectors to succeed, potentially playing a key role in the workforce development pipeline.
In recognition of the unique benefits to the entire industry of the CALVEIN program, the California Space Authority, under the Department of Labor's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative is studying the model so that it might be promoted and propagated, broadening the benefit to the space enterprise community and to the California economy.
Left: P-14LMin-flight - RSRR
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| P-14LM launch crew |
Climbing the rail |
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| CSULB team with P-14 after the flight |
LOX-methane engine post flight closeup |
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